I just saw on Mike Hanson's Facebook page that he stopped a half mile short of the Katahdin summit so that the people he was hiking with could open their store the next day. I'm guessing they were his transportation out of the park and they apparently reached the summit earlier that day.
It is a remarkable feat for anyone to thru hike and for someone who is blind to do it even more remarkable. Obviously if he made it that far he really had nothing to prove by reaching the summit.
I'm sure there's more to this story but it seems strange to me that after such an amazing journey he would voluntarily stop that close to the top.